


Schrödinger's cat

by vermicious_knid



Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: AU, Backstory, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-17
Updated: 2018-05-17
Packaged: 2019-05-08 09:20:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14691123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vermicious_knid/pseuds/vermicious_knid
Summary: She appears without warning in his home one day, like a stray cat.





	Schrödinger's cat

She appears without warning in his home one day, like a stray cat.

 

He had been gone for only a few hours – and to make it through the maze for someone who didn’t know about the traps and misleading corridors beforehand would take longer than that. If they made it through at all.

 

But still, there she was.

 

He didn’t like intruders.

 

* * *

 

Jeremiah always carried a weapon, concealed in his sleeve or at the back of his shoe. He was an engineer after all.

 

He has had plenty of practice using them too. Not that he’d ever killed anyone – not yet.

 

She is standing in the kitchen, drinking from a can of soup when he points the gun at her head. Calculating, careful eyes look at him from across the room. She doesn’t look very threatening, except there is something about her that tells him to be wary of that notion.

 

”Just how did you get in here?” he demands, his glasses slipping a little from the bridge of his nose and he adjusts them with an annoyed gesture.

 

She looks down and puts the can of soup down on the kitchen counter with a quiet thud. Shrugs in a way that should anger him instead of making him more curious.

 

”I want to help you. ” She says instead, facing him once more. Darkly sincere and her gaze knowing, intense. Like she would do anything for him. His mind flickers through names that might match to her face, wonders if this is another one of Jerome’s crazy followers come to finish him off. But he does not recognize her at all.

 

”Why?” he asks, not bothering to hide how suspicious he is. 

 

”It does not matter. This is what I can offer you.”

 

They’re both silent for a moment then. Only the metallic hum of the fluorescent lights above their heads make any sound. He has not once lowered the gun.

 

”I’ll have to ask you to leave.” He is not prepared for how stunned and hurt she looks after he says it. He is not supposed to feel bad for trying to survive.

 

”Okay.” she says, shrugging once more before she leaves.

 

* * *

 

But she does not leave. Not really.

 

Next morning when he checks his security cameras, he nearly does a double-take when he discovers a moving figure in the maze. She is sticking her fingers inside the place where knives shoot out when an intruder breaks the laser barrier near the floor.

 

”Son of a bitch.”

 

Of course, she has already figured out how this works, but it does not stop him from all but sprinting out of the room to prevent a stupid and inevitable accident.

* * *

This time there is no gun in his hand, and she is making them both some coffee in the kitchen while he glares at her intently the whole time. Her hands remain unscathed, and it is only slightly alarming how well she seems to evade all his traps and understand the way he’s set things up.

 

So much so that he is starting to suspect that she’s been here plenty of times before, without announcing her presence.

 

Another disturbing fact is that she knows how he likes his coffee, and to his recent recollection, nobody should be privy to that information. Sweet enough to put an ordinary person in a coma, with no milk or cream whatsoever.

 

”Is it okay?” she asks after he’s taken the first sip, and she looks so concerned that all his dark thoughts pale and fade away. 

 

”Yeah, it is. Thank you.” Strangest of all, he finds that he means it. 


End file.
